Hoover blisters Bryant but Hurricanes exult in a different sort of triumph

 

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

BIRMINGHAM — Alma Bryant’s girls knew they’d have to stick a lot of harpoons into the whale known as Hoover basketball to have any chance of sinking the best team in the state Thursday.

The No. 8-ranked Hurricanes didn’t throw enough of them and the ones that got through were flung off by the dynastic Buccaneers with barely a blink in a 92-47 win in the Class 7A state tournament semifinals at Legacy Arena.

It was the 34^th straight victory for No. 1-ranked Hoover (34-1), which is seeking its sixth straight state championship.

But Bryant — which finished 25-7 and reached the state tournament for the first time — experienced a triumph of a different kind. Its players did not get to climb a ladder to cut down the net, as champions often do, but they exulted in the revival of an assistant coach who was found at the bottom of a ladder four months ago after a serious fall and hovered near death.

Last November, John Peacock suffered a near-fatal brain injury in the accident at a construction site and his wife, Bryant coach Alaina Peacock, missed the best season in school history to care for him. B.J. Evans took over as the coach and brought the Hurricanes to the penultimate game in high school basketball. Meanwhile, John Peacock survived a coma and several surgeries and was released to go home.

On Thursday, Alaina Peacock also came home, appearing in Legacy Arena to the surprise of her players at the most meaningful moment in their lives and bringing them warm consolation with her embraces. As she watched Bryant stars and twin sisters Madi-Marie Grayson and Mari-Margret Grayson climb the postgame interview stage, she clasped her hand to her mouth and fought off tears.

“To be able to push from only 10 wins in a season to I think only seven losses now, the journey was tough but we had great people in our corner,” Mari-Margret Grayson said. “Coach Peacock raised us from little babies all the way up and coach Evans kept it right there where she had us. The journey was fun, it was hard and it was completely worth it. Our goal was to make it to state and when you get to state, anything can happen.”

The expected happened — the Bucs have won by 10 or more points 31 times this season — but Evans said he admired his players’ response to the adversity they faced all season.

“We knew the mountain was going to be steep, the hill was going to be tough to climb,” Evans said. “I couldn’t be more proud of how the girls handled themselves today, throughout the season and how they represented their school and Alaina and John Peacock this year. They played this year for them.”

The Graysons were held to 27 combined points and 2-of-12 shooting from three-point range but the Hurricanes never got to category-5 strength because of Hoover’s defense, which collected 24 turnovers, resulting in an overwhelming 64-12 advantage in the paint with all the cheap baskets. The Bucs outscored Bryant 40-2 off the turnovers.

Mari-Margret Grayson scored 14 points and Madi-Marie Grayson added 13 after scoring 40 in the regional final against Fairhope. Neither got clean looks out of the Hurricanes’ set offense and they often resorted to launching off-balance threes on the run. To get a truly unobstructed shot, they would have had to try them out by the nearby Vulcan statue and even he always has his hand up to block a shot.

“I think we had really good defensive intensity,” Hoover coach Krystle Johnson said. “We wanted to make it as difficult as possible for them to get the ball. We knew once they got the ball that they could present a huge problem when it comes to scoring. They’re really good at creating their own shots. We have a lot of bodies that we can throw at people where we can try to wear them down and keep them from getting the ball. I am not sure if they’ve ever seen that many different bodies thrown at them in one game.”

Evans was elated that Bryant kept it close for the first eight minutes, trailing 17-14 after one period.

“Honestly, if you would have told me three points at the end of the first quarter, I’d have been happy with that,” he said.

But the Bucs were starting to assert themselves defensively and on the boards and the cement was already starting to harden around the Hurricanes, which had six early turnovers.

“We knew that we had to execute,” Evans said. “I felt like we defended pretty well on the first shot but I felt like their length and their athleticism kind of got us on the boards and they got us on offensive rebounds, putbacks and stuff like that. … I thought our girls fought hard for 32 minutes and that’s all you can ask.”

Hoover separated from Bryant with a 17-2 run to take a 38-17 lead in the second period and led 50-27 at halftime. Their lead was as big as 48 points in the fourth period.

Four-star 6-4 senior center Khloe Ford led the Bucs with 25 points and 11 rebounds and helped Hoover outscore the Hurricanes 22-10 off second chances.

While Ford will likely go on to a sixth straight state championship and a career as a major college player, the Graysons played the final game of their celebrated high school careers, in which both scored 2,000 points.

“I loved every single body on this team,” Madi-Marie Grayson said. “It sucks to lose but I am pretty happy with what we did.”

Her sister found it difficult to take off her Hurricanes jersey for the final time.

“It’s hard but I think we made a statement for Bryant,” Mari-Margret Grayson said. “The job wasn’t finished but I thought it was pretty good.”

Even Johnson, who has taken the Bucs to eight straight finals, congratulated what the Hurricanes accomplished.

“It’s a blessing to get this far because not everybody gets to be here,” she said.